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International broadcasting rights for Serie A football over the next four years have been sold for twice as much as the previous four-year period, the league announced.

US sports and entertainment management group IMG and Italy's public TV broadcaster RAI bought the global rights for 2018 to 2021 for €371 million ($438 million), with RAI broadcasting to "Italian communities abroad",
La Lega Serie A said on Tuesday.

The sum paid is double that of the €186 million ($219 million) forked out for the previous period, from 2015 to 2018.

IMG beat London-based favourites MP & Silva, who bid higher, after the US group impressed with a superior project to promote Serie A overseas, according to Italian media. Eighteen of the twenty top flight Italian clubs voted in favour of the IMG offer.

"It's very satisfying because it ranks Serie A third in terms of financial value behind the Premier League and La Liga and way in front of the Bundesliga," said Luigi Di Servio, managing director of sports marketing
company Infront, which advised Serie A on the broadcasting rights dossier.

Italian football federation president Carlo Tavecchio added: "We've established the value of Italian football, by doubling revenues earned by Lega Serie A on the previous sale."

For the domestic market, broadcasting rights for the 2015 to 2018 period in Italy reached €945 million ($1.1 billion).